Components

An orca pair spy hops from the waters of Prince William Sound. Photo taken by Craig Matkin.

Gulf Watch Alaska’s long-term monitoring program tracks ecosystem changes at multiple scales to develop better understanding of relationships between animals and their environment. During the first five years of integrated monitoring, two examples of interesting observations emerged: the response of species (from plankton to whales) to the warm water anomaly and identification of multi-species aggregation areas that are consistently used over time.

Warm Anomaly Observations

Increased water temperatures across the Gulf of Alaska from late 2013 through 2016 drove changes throughout the marine system, from the smallest plankton to the largest whales. The proportion of large, fatty, nutrient rich zooplankton that prefer cold water declined while smaller, less nutrient-dense species that prefer warm water increased. Long-bodied diatoms that thrive in low nutrient conditions, including species that produce toxins, increased in proportion relative to all phytoplankton.

ALL GULF WATCH ALASKA PROJECTS RECORDED CHANGES ASSOCIATED WITH THE PACIFIC WARM ANOMOLY (BLOB) DURING THE FIRST 5 YEARS OF THE PROGRAM. OCEANOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS SHIFTED TO WARM WATERS AND CHANGES IN PLANKTON SPECIES (TOP). ECOSYSTEM RESPONSES TO THE WARM ANOMOLY WERE MIXED: SOME AREAS SAW INCREASES IN SALMON, WHICH KILLER WHALES CONVERTED TO AMPLE FAT RESERVES; HARMFUL ALGAL SPECIES ABOUNDED AND NUMEROUS SPECIES SUFFERED FROM UNUSUAL MORTALITY EVENTS; AND SOME SPECIES DISTRIBUTIONS CHANGED (BOTTOM).

Hot ocean wintersbring small copepods in springRedistribution of health

Whale and bird beckonto where forage fish hide outFollow us, they say

Gulf Watch Alaska is the long-term ecosystem-monitoring program of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council for the marine ecosystem affected by the 1989 oil spill. The Trustee Council began funding the program in 2012; however, many of the studies have a much longer time series. The current five-year, $12 million program began in February 2017 and is the second 5-year increment of a program anticipated to span a 20-year period. The current program includes 11 projects within three monitoring components: Environmental Drivers, Pelagic Ecosystem, and Nearshore Ecosystem. We coordinate with our sister programs studying Prince William Sound Pacific herring and lingering oil, and receive support from the data management program.

Why are we monitoring?

Extensive restoration, research, and monitoring efforts have taken place over the past two decades following the Exxon Valdez oil spill, but full recovery is still not complete. Some oil is still lingering in beaches and may continue to affect the environment. With this program, the Trustee Council has committed to long-term monitoring to gain information about the lingering oil and the recovery of species and resources injured by the spill, as well as other factors that may be affecting recovery, such as changing climate, oceanographic and ecosystem conditions. Extensive restoration, research, and monitoring efforts have taken place over the past two decades following the Exxon Valdez oil spill, but full recovery is still not complete. Some oil is still lingering in beaches and may continue to affect the environment. With this program, the Trustee Council has committed to long-term monitoring to gain information about the lingering oil and the recovery of species and resources injured by the spill, as well as other factors that may be affecting recovery, such as changing climate, oceanographic and ecosystem conditions.

The overall goals of Gulf Watch Alaska are to:

Provide sound scientific information on biological resources and environmental conditions to management agencies, the scientific research community and the general public;

Identify and help understand the impacts of multiple factors on recovery of resources injured by the 1989 oil spill; and

Leverage partnerships with state and federal agencies, universities, non-profits and private entities to integrate and provide access to data from broader monitoring efforts in the region.

What are the benefits to researchers and managers?

30 years of historic data are being compiled and synthesized with ongoing and future data collection.

Patterns in environmental conditions for a variety of species (trends in abundance, geographic distribution and community composition over different time periods) can be examined to address questions about recovery from the oil spill and other factors limiting recovery across the Gulf of Alaska and lower Cook Inlet, including climate change.

All program data is accessible through the project website and Gulf of Alaska data portal for use by other scientists to better understand marine ecosystems and by natural resource managers to better understand the potential effects of management decisions.

Data and information products are accessible to teachers for use in the classroom.